Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Bock Beer Recipe

Well we have created two bock beer recipes to try. After a
lot of reading and researching we have something that we think will be our own.
Bock beer is one of our favorites to drink. What beer isn’t good to drink?

The history of bock beer is interesting for sure. The bock style was first an ale then made as
a lager. It is a malty beer with a light to undetectable hops presence. The aroma should be very malty with no hops
being detectable. If you are staying true to the style it must have a minimum
OG of 1.064. This brings the beer to about 6.0+ in ABV.

The color of the bock beer is usually a copper color. Some
may have the dunkel , meaning dark, in the name of the beer. This is due to the
sub-styles of the bock beers. For example helles or maibock are a lighter
colored beer with a more notable hop presence. Maibocks are usually brewed in
the spring or the month of May. Dunkel just means “dark”.

Wheat and barley were used in the original Einbeck beer. So
we based our recipe on that as well. This will be a bock beer based on the
original recipes and not so much on the modern versions of the beer.

But why do they call it bock beer and why are there always
goats on the labels? Good question and no one knows for certain. The most
common and accepted explanation is the name is a derivative if the town name of
Einbeck where the style originated from. And what about goats you say? Well
when the name was used in the Bavarian dialect the beer was called “Ainpoeckish
Pier”. This was later shortened to “Poeck” and the finally to “bock”. Bock is “goat”
in German. So that is why you have goats on the labels of most bock beers.

We'll keep you posted on the progress of these beers as they will be lagered. Heck we might even try one as an ale on the next brew.